Last week, the internet was abuzz with the rumors that Kelly Rowland had been dropped by Columbia Records.
The day after the story surfaced online, the record company CEO, Robert Stringer attempted to quell the rumors by releasing a formal statement.
“Kelly Rowland is one of our finest contemporary artists and a musical force to be reckoned with. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with Kelly and we will continue our working relationship with her under the Destiny’s Child moniker. The decision for Kelly to seek other opportunities for her solo career was agreed upon mutually, and any reports to the contrary are false,” Stringer offered.
Anyone with a remote knowledge of the music business understood that since Rowland was signed to Columbia Records via a production deal with Music World Entertainment, the company founded by Mathew Knowles, it was inevitable that her deal with Columbia Records was compromised once the 28-year-old singer ended her management agreement with Knowles back in January.
Now my sources tell me that the real reason the story about Rowland leaked the way it did last week was so that no one would realize that Geffen/Interscope Records has opted not to further their relationship with Knowles’ daughter Solange Knowles.
The eclectic singer’s sophomore release ‘Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams’ has only sold around 138,000 units since its release in August of 2008 and Geffen/Interscope didn’t see the value in doing a new CD on her.
“Geffen did a one-off deal with Music World Entertainment for Solange and wasn’t interested in doing a new contract with her. People at the label really liked working with her because other than her infamous news outburst in Las Vegas, she was a constant professional. There were challenges dealing with her camp, but Solange was great to work with. In the end, the CD didn’t sell despite Solange’s countless high
profile appearances,” the record label source told me.
One of the record labels that Knowles has been meeting with about signing his youngest daughter is Epic Records.
Incidentally, Epic Records is also the label that had initially approached Rowland about a new recording contract upon learning that she would be dissolving her management and recording relationship with Music World Entertainment/Columbia.
Epic’s new president Amanda Ghost, a London-bred former recording artist and songwriter, recognized Rowland’s impact as an international recording artist and thought she would be able to duplicate her European success here in America.
“Amanda was really into signing Kelly and then Matthew started meeting with her about Solange. I’m told he used his influence in the Sony system with Beyonce to complicate the existing offer to Kelly and then the deal ultimately didn’t happen,” the source explained.
Ghost was recently spotted at the South By Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas where she was apparently scouting Solange, who performed on the last night event.
So both Rowland and Solange are now currently without record company homes; though I am told that Rowland will likely be announcing a new record deal in the coming weeks.
At press time, a rep for Music World Entertainment was unavailable for comment.
